Emily Cooney
Dr. Hutchisson
31 January 2008
The Portrayal of Women in Josephine Pinckney’s Three O’Clock Dinner
The Scene in 1930s and 1940s Charleston
§ Struggle between the old ways and the new ways
§ Idea that modern women are not Southern women
§ A Southern woman has to struggle between her own autonomy and the public/personal resistance to it
Jones’s “Southern Myth of Womanhood”
§ Women are inferior and should be obedient
§ There are different expectations for different races and classes of women
§ White women should be caretakers, polished in the arts, and should shun their sexuality
Pinckney’s Women in the Novel
§ Emigrants versus Immigrants
§ All of her women are proud but also flawed
§ Only Judith, the one caught in the middle of the two kinds of woman, has full chapters devoted to her
§ Pinckney’s women “replicate life rather than make political statements” (Bellows 183)
The Women of Three O’Clock Dinner
§ Etta- show of aristocracy and gentility, aloof, tiresome, manipulative
§ Vinny- proud, loud, overbearing, sense of entitlement, superstitious
§ Aunt Quince- snobbish, old-world, all-seeing, the matriarch
§ Lorena- proud, naïve, sense of entitlement, cannot handle her secrets
§ Judith- proud, lonely, self-doubting, loyal, compassionate, struggling with her identity
§ Janie- oblivious, not taken seriously, tries to please her in-laws
§ Manya- nosey, self-assured, “liberal” woman, possible prototype for the new kind of Southern woman
§ Mrs. MacNab- intimidating, needs to be in control, bold
§ Mrs. Maguire- uneducated, ignorant, seen as unfit, loving, harmless
§ Bekah- good cook, loyal, quiet, knows her place in the household
The Men’s Views of the Women
§ They are all taken by Lorena and her brashness and beauty
§ They all love Judith and her sweet nature and feel they need to humor her and take care of her
§ They put up with Aunt Quince because she represents what they are trying to hold on to
§ They feel Etta is a nuisance and manipulative, but again they humor her because she does it out of love
§ They are intimidated by Vinny and her overbearing personality